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Stirring-promoted piezo-photocatalysis based on a three-dimensional foam architecture has great potential applications in wastewater treatment and water splitting. However, the detailed mechanism of stirring-promoted piezo-photocatalysis has not been quantitatively studied, and the utilization of visible light needs to be further improved. In this work, the high solar-driven piezo-photocatalytic ability of graphite carbon nitride (g-C

Zika virus (ZIKV) evolves non-structural proteins to evade immune response and ensure efficient replication in the host cells. Cholesterol metabolic enzyme 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR7) was recently reported to impact innate immune responses in ZIKV infection. However, the vital non-structural protein and mechanisms involved in DHCR7-mediated viral evasion are not well elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that ZIKV infection facilitated DHCR7 expression. Notably, the upregulated DHCR7 in turn facilitated ZIKV infection and blocking DHCR7 suppressed ZIKV infection. Mechanically, ZIKV non-structural protein 4B (NS4B) interacted with DHCR7 to induce DHCR7 expression. Moreover, DHCR7 inhibited TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) and interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) phosphorylation, which resulted in the reduction of interferon-beta (IFN-β) and interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) productions. Therefore, we propose that ZIKV NS4B binds to DHCR7 to repress TBK1 and IRF3 activation, which in turn inhibits IFN-β and ISGs, and thereby facilitating ZIKV evasion. This study broadens the insights on how viral non-structural proteins antagonize innate immunity to facilitate viral infection via cholesterol metabolic enzymes and intermediates.

Human adenovirus (HAdV) infections are a major threat worldwide. HAdV-3 is one of the most predominant respiratory pathogen types found in children.

Viral infection in respiratory tract usually leads to cell death, impairing respiratory function to cause severe disease. However, the diversity of clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the complexity and difficulty of viral infection prevention, and especially the high-frequency asymptomatic infection increases the risk of virus transmission. Studying how SARS-CoV-2 affects apoptotic pathway may help to understand the pathological process of its infection. Here, we uncovered SARS-CoV-2 imployed a distinct anti-apoptotic mechanism via its N protein. We found SARS-CoV-2 virus-like particles (trVLP) suppressed cell apoptosis, but the trVLP lacking N protein didn’t. Further study verified that N protein repressed cell apoptosis in cultured cells, human lung organoids and mice. Mechanistically, N protein specifically interacted with anti-apoptotic protein MCL-1, and recruited a deubiquitinating enzyme USP15 to remove the K63-linked ubiquitination of MCL-1, which stabilized this protein and promoted it to hijack Bak in mitochondria. Importantly, N protein promoted the replications of IAV, DENV and ZIKV, and exacerbated death of IAV-infected mice, all of which could be blocked by a MCL-1 specific inhibitor, S63845. Altogether, we identifed a distinct anti-apoptotic function of the N protein, through which it promoted viral replication. These may explain how SARS-CoV-2 effectively replicates in asymptomatic individuals without cuasing respiratory dysfunction, and indicate a risk of enhanced coinfection with other viruses. We anticipate that abrogating the N/MCL-1-dominated apoptosis repression is conducive to the treatments of SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as coinfections with other viruses.

Background Depression is an emotional and psychiatric disease with the main symptoms of prolonged depression, delayed thinking, and decreased movement. However, the treatment of depression is still a clinical problem. Zhizi (Gardeniae Fructus) is a Chinese herbal medicine that has been widely used for decades to treat depression. In this study, bioinformatics analysis were used to predict the molecular mechanism of Zhizi in the treatment of depression.Methods Through the Chinese herbal medicine pharmacological data and analysis platform, the active ingredients of Zhizi were retrieved and screened. At the same time, the therapeutic target proteins for depression were screened from databases that registered various known disease targets. After that, the interaction network between "knowles" and depression was constructed to enrich the key nodes of the analysis and validated with western blot experimentsResults Thirteen branching compounds and 112 depression candidate genes were identified and a "branching-compound-target-depression" network was successfully constructed. The above targe revealed by GO and KEGG enrichment analysis explain that drug treatment of the disease may be achieved by affecting apoptosis-related signaling pathways in depressed patients. Western blot experiments validated the above results.Conclusion Zhizi may improve depression by regulating autophagy and apoptosis in cells, which may be a new strategy for the depression.

Whether diabetes remission still happened among non-obese type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients with a body mass index (BMI)25 kg/m2 following lifestyle-medicine interventions was quite necessary to be reported because many diabetes happened with normal or low BMI in China.The criteria for subject inclusion:20 years after T2DM diagnosis, ≥6 months treatment with oral anti-diabetic drugs, without serious complications, and no history of insulin use. They were divided into two groups: the obesity group (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) and the lean group (BMI25 kg/m2). All subjects received the following lifestyle-medicine interventions: stopping oral anti-diabetic therapy, initiating a low-carbohydrate (contributing by 35-40% to calorie intake) diet for the first month (gradual transition to a normal diet for the next 5 months), participating in resistance and aerobic exercise, and receiving strengthen management. Diabetes remission was defined as glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) level6.5% (48 mmol/mol) after 6 months of not taking any anti-diabetic medications during the lifestyle-medicine intervention. Finally, 125 individuals completed the lifestyle-medicine intervention in the prospective study. The efficacy and safety of lifestyle-medicine intervention were assessed and compared between lean and obese Chinese subjects with T2DM.We found that 64.52% of the T2DM subjects in the obese group and 60.64% of T2DM subjects in the lean group achieved diabetes remission [i.e., an A1C level6.5% (48 mmol/mol)] without any anti-diabetic medications after the 6-month lifestyle-medicine intervention. Our multiple linear regression analysis showed that decreases in the fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level had the most powerful effect on decreases in the A1C level after the intervention (R2=0.3072).Lifestyle-medicine interventions may have increased effectiveness in controlling mild T2DM as compared with the oral antidiabetic-based treatment; unexpectedly, there seems no further improvement in lean relative to obese patients. Three in five subjects could achieve diabetes remission though the lifestyle-medicine intervention regardless of whether their BMI was below or above 25 kg/m2.

NLRP3 inflammasome mainly controls interleukin-1β (IL-1β) secretion, leading to cell death called pyroptosis constituting a major antiviral host defense and inflammatory diseases upon viral infection. The RAF-MEK1/2-ERK1/2 cascade and downstream c-Jun/Fos and Activator protein-1 (AP1) signaling pathway control the degree of inflammatory response. Influenza A virus (IAV) infection is known to stimulate NLRP3 inflammasome activation and inflammatory responses. Nevertheless, the detailed mechanism by which IAV induces NLRP3 inflammasome activation involved in transcription of pro-IL-1β mRNA remains elusive. In our study, we found that IAV infection promotes pro-IL-1β mRNA transcription and activates NLRP3 inflammasome. Detailed studies reveal that type I interferon (IFN-α/IFN-β) as well as U0126 (a selective inhibitor of MEK-1 and MEK-2) typically inhibit IAV-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation via downregulating pro-IL-1β mRNA. Moreover, knock-down of c-Jun decreases pro-IL-1β mRNA and inhibits NLRP3 inflammasome activation upon IAV infection. Overall, the findings uncover that AP-1 signaling pathway promotes NLRP3 inflammasome activation upon IAV infection, which provides a new idea for the therapy of NLRP3 inflammasome-associated inflammatory diseases.

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary carbohydrate to lipid (CHO:L) ratios on growth performance, body composition, serum biochemical indexes, lipid metabolism, and gene expression of central appetite regulating factors in Chinese perch (Siniperca chuatsi) (mean initial weight: 12.86 ± 0.10 g). Five isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets (fish meal, casein as main protein sources) were formulated to contain different graded CHO:L ratio diets ranging from 0.12, 0.86, 1.71, 3.29, and 7.19. Each diet was assigned to triplicate groups of 18 experimental fish. Our results revealed that final body weight (FBW), weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR), and protein efficiency ratio (PER) increased with dietary CHO:L ratio from 0.12 to 1.71 and then decreased with further increases in dietary CHO:L ratio. A two-slope broken-line regression analysis based on WGR showed that the optimal dietary CHO:L level for maximum growth performance of fish was 1.60. Crude lipid and crude protein content in the liver and glycogen concentration in the muscle and liver were significantly influenced by the dietary CHO:L ratios (P 0.05). The lowest crude lipid content in the liver was observed in fish fed the diet with a CHO:L ratio of 1.71(P 0.05). Dietary CHO:L ratios significantly induced the glucose concentration of serum (P 0.05). The relative expression levels of genes involved in lipid metabolism, such as srebp1 and fas in the liver, showed a trend of first decreased and then increased with the increase of dietary CHO:L ratio levels. Appropriate CHO:L ratio in the diet can effectively reduce the accumulation of liver fat. We observed in fish fed the 1.71 CHO:L ratio diet showed higher feed intake, up-regulated mRNA expression of neuropeptide Y (npy) and agouti gene-related protein (agrp), and down-regulated mRNA expression of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (cart) and pro-opiomelanocorticoid (pomc) significantly as compared to control group. Thus, these results provide the theoretical basis for feed formulation to determine the appropriate CHO:L ratio requirement of Chinese perch.

Ultrasonic stimulation induced polarization behaviors in ferroelectric materials have been extensively explored in catalytic degradations. However, the ultrasonic wave similarly can realize dye degradation by the sonocatalysis behavior, which is always neglected in most reports on in-situ ultrasound-induced piezoelectric catalysis, so that people might overestimate piezocatalytic contributions. For this, we designed a series of visible light sensitive bismuth layered ferroelectric materials (BLFMs), M0.5Bi2.5Nb2O9 (MBN, M = Li, Na, and K). It is found that the cavitation-induced degradation rates of Rhodamine B (RhB) strongly depend mechanical stirring speeds under a fixed ultrasonic power, which gradually increases with it, and reaches 77.9% (500 rpm and 3 h). Under lower stirring speed and reaction time (

Er3+-doped KNN-based ceramics exhibited multifunctional features with upconversion luminescence, thermoluminescence, and ferroelectric/piezoelectric properties, which may enable novel applications in the field of optoelectronic devices.

BackgroundHybridization is generally considered an important creative evolutionary force, yet this evolutionary process is still poorly characterized in karst plants. In this study, we focus on natural hybridization in yellowCamelliaspecies, a group of habitat specialists confined to karst/non-karst habitats in southwestern China.ResultsBased on population genome data obtain from double digest restriction-site associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing, we found evidence for natural hybridization and introgression betweenC. micranthaandC. flavida, and specifically confirmed their hybrid population,C. “ptilosperma”. Ecophysiological results suggested that extreme hydraulic traits were fixed inC. “ptilosperma”, these being consistent with its distinct ecological niche, which lies outside its parental ranges.ConclusionThe identified hybridization event is expected to have played a role in generating novel variation during, in which the hybrid population displays different phenological characteristics and novel ecophysiological traits associated with the colonization of a new niche in limestone karst.

Global COVID-19 pandemics highlight the need of developing vaccines with universal and durable protection against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Here we developed an extended-release vaccine delivery system (GP-diABZI-RBD), consisting the original SARS-CoV-2 WA1 strain receptor-binding domain (RBD) as the antigen and diABZI STING agonist in conjunction with yeast β-glucan particles (GP-diABZI) as the platform. GP-diABZI-RBD could activate STING pathway and inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication. Compared to diABZI-RBD, intraperitoneal injection of GP-diABZI-RBD elicited robust cellular and humoral immune responses in mice. Using SARS-CoV-2 GFP/ΔN transcription and replication-competent virus-like particle system (trVLP), we demonstrated that GP-diABZI-RBD-prototype vaccine exhibited the strongest and durable humoral immune responses and antiviral protection; whereas GP-diABZI-RBD-Omicron displayed minimum neutralization responses against trVLP. By using pseudotype virus (PsVs) neutralization assay, we found that GP-diABZI-RBD-Prototype, GP-diABZI-RBD-Delta, and GP-diABZI-RBD-Gamma immunized mice sera could efficiently neutralize Delta and Gamma PsVs, but had weak protection against Omicron PsVs. In contrast, GP-diABZI-RBD-Omicron immunized mice sera displayed the strongest neutralization response to Omicron PsVs. Taken Together, the results suggest that GP-diABZI can serve as a promising vaccine delivery system for enhancing durable humoral and cellular immunity against broad SARS-CoV-2 variants. Our study provides important scientific basis for developing SARS-COV-2 VOC-specific vaccines. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Ferroelectric materials with photochromic behavior exhibit highly efficient photo/piezo-catalytic behavior by finely controlling the photochromic processes.

Most photochromic ceramics can back up post-irradiation to achieve color state transition. Unfortunately, color recovery usually requires exposure of material to external physical fields (such as light and heat), which severely limits the application as a convenient energy building material such as smart windows. Here, we report a kind of sodium niobate translucent ceramics whose photochromic effect can be completely self-recoverable without any external physical field stimulation. Based on the analysis of time-response transmittance, up-conversion emission spectra and thermoluminescence spectra, the behavior of carrier migration and trap capture/release in the process of self-recovery photochromic reaction has been proposed. It is believed that the emergence of intermediate trap level is an important factor to produce this spontaneous behavior. Moreover, by controlling the amount of rare earth doping and designing two types of materials with different carrier behaviors, Sm/Er-codoped NaNbO3 ceramics are regarded as an appropriate candidate for tracing the time of light irradiation and intelligent regulation of smart building materials. This work can promote the fundamental understanding and practical applications of self-recoverable photochromic bulk materials.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary carbohydrate on growth performance, feed utilization, proximate compositions, and hepatic glucolipid metabolism in Chinese perch. Triplicate groups of Chinese perch (29.51 ± 0.24 g) were fed five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets containing graded levels of carbohydrate (2.4%, 9.7%, 16.5%, 23.9%, and 30.1%) for 8 weeks. The results showed that 10.93% dietary carbohydrate level provided a maximum growth for Chinese perch based on second-order polynomial regression analysis of specific growth rate (SGR). Compared to 2.4%-carbohydrate group, moderate-carbohydrate (9.7%) group exhibited the increase in daily weight gain (DWG) and protein retention ratio(PER), and the decrease in feed conversion efficiency (FCR). Moreover, moderate-carbohydrate group showed the increase in the mRNA levels of phosphofructokinase (pfk) and citrate synthase (cs) involved in aerobic oxidation pathway, the increase in hepatic glycogen content, and no change in glucose level. Above results suggested that part carbohydrates may be converted into energy for growth by aerobic oxidation pathway, and the remaining carbohydrates may be converted into glycogen for storage to maintain glucose homeostasis in Chinese perch fed with moderate-carbohydrate diet. Differently, high-carbohydrate (23.9% and 30.1%) group showed the decrease in DWG and PER, and the increase in FCR,compared to 2.4%-carbohydrate group. Additionally, high-carbohydrate group presented the increase in the mRNA levels of glucose-6-phosphatase a (g6pca) and pyruvate carboxylase (pc) involved in gluconeogenesis, which caused the increase in plasma glucose level. However, other plasma indices related to TG-metabolite and its transport (total triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein) did not show difference, which combined with elevated fatty acid synthesis-related gene acetyl coA carboxylase α (accα) mRNA level resulted in excessive liver lipid deposition. Above results indicated that unregulated gluconeogenesis and invalidoutward transportation of liver TG-rich metabolites may account for the glucose intolerance of Chinese perch fed with carbohydrate-rich diet.